LYFT message: ‘Don’t be a party to underage drinking’
PENNSBURY -- With the holiday season here, students are sending a message to adultsW “Parents who host lose the most. Don’t be a party to underage drinking.”
The students, from the Pennsbury LYFT Awareness Teen Advisory Group, or ATAG for short, are participating in project “Sticker ShRFN,” DIIfixLnJ sWLFNHUs FDUUyLnJ WhDW PHssage on beer cases at Cold Spring Beverage in Yardley and at other local beer stores.
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Tim Philpot, Pennsbury LYFT project director, said a total of 1,800 labels were applied to cases of beer containing at least 24 cans or bottles each.
“Conservatively, that means 43,200 beers were labeled,” he said. “Because some of the cases actually contain 30 beers, we can probably say with a good deal of certainly that we labeled the equivalent of 50,000 beers in about one hour and 45 minutes.”
Philpot said Sticker Shock is important to change the attitudes and beliefs of some that might think it is okay to serve alcohol to minors.
Sticker Shock is a program that was initiated several years ago by the Alcohol Education Bureau of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Youth and adults volunteer, working with a cooperating beer distributorship, go into the establishment and place a sticker on as many cases of beer as possible to remind adults that it is illegal to purchase or serve alcohol to minors.
LYFT ATAG is made up of between 40 and 50 youth who participate in various events during the year.
“They are leaders among their peers and they are committed to drug and alcohol prevention among their peers,” Philpot said. “They are a very diverse group of youth.
“It is important for our participating youth to know that they are contributing positively to changing the environment,” he said.
The president of the group, Jon Leventry, 17, is a junior at Pennsbury High School. He is an offensive lineman on the Pennsbury Falcons football team.
He said that ATAG member also participated in the Sticker Shock project in the summer.
“Now, we have just started to really kick it up a notch and really start to get the gears grinding and rocking and rolling with this whole thing,” he said. “We go to a bunch of different beer distributors and we basically put these stickers on which allow parents to understand the consequences that they really need to know. The stickers say that there are serious consequences for giving alcohol to minors. You’re lRRNLnJ DW finHs. ,W FRulG HYHn LnFluGH MDLl WLPH if it becomes serious enough. It can really ruin families.”
He said underage alcohol use prevention starts at home and parents should not give alcohol to their children.
“,’P D fiUP EHlLHYHU WhDW SDUHnWs DUH WhH URlH models,” he said. “Children look up to their parents. When children think that underage drinking is the correct way to go -- then it’s only going to go down the line of generations.
“This is not a good practice,” Leventry said. “It can’t happen.”
Sticker Shock they’re doing.
“A lot of times they may not even be conscious of what they’re doing,” he said. “But, it’s important for the parent not to be the best friend of their child, but to act as the parent.”
“Sometimes,” Leventry advised, “parents are going to have to say what is right and wrong.”
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Trevor Naskiewicz, 13, has been a member of LYFT ATAG for two years. “I just like helping my community,” he said.
He believes that underage drinkers are “insecure about themselves and they’re just doing it to feel better. Maybe they don’t have support at their home and that leads to these bad things.”
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About underage drinkers, she said, “I think that they’re just doing that to make themselves stand out – to be cool,” she said.
“I think that they’re doing the wrong thing and not thinking before they act,” she said. “I don’t think it’s the right thing.”
Sticker Shock is a long standing LYFT program which is done on a regular basis. In addition to Cold Spring Beverage, Pat Deon Beverages, The Beverage wone and Beer-a-Rama have participated.
The project started before Thanksgiving and is underway until New Year’s.
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